By Barbara Zaragoza / South Bay Compass

Last week I focused on the U.S.-Mexico border after former Arkansas governor, Mike Huckabee, visited. I thought that would be the end of it–time to turn our focus on Chula Vista’s lawsuits. But nope. The border continues to be in the news this week, this time with the Union-Tribune reporting that employees, including a supervisor, in the San Diego sector of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) allegedly used government time to recruit workers for swinger parties. (What in the world?)

The headlines about alleged sex parties overshadowed an interesting KPBS report that migration from Mexico to the U.S. slowed to 164,621, down more than 41% from the previous year. Their source is the highly regarded organization El Colegio de la Frontera Norte (COLEF).

Chula Vista’s Lawsuits

Okay, the focus was also on Chula Vista’s lawsuits.

Robert Moreno at the Chula Vista Star News reported that a lawsuit brought to Councilman Steve Miesen was amended last month to focus on the City of Chula Vista’s decades-old process of filling vacancies on the City Council. The lawsuit claims Brown Act violations because “members of the City Council are secretly provided with information about the backgrounds and qualifications of persons interested in filling the vacancy and then secretly vote on a slate of candidates whom they believe should be finalists for filling the vacancy. By design, the public does not get to observe this.” The lawsuit has been filed by Chula Vista resident Chris Shilling and San Diegans For Open Government.

Robert Moreno also reported that a San Diego Superior Court judge has ordered the Sweetwater Union High School District to turn over documents that it withheld from a community member. Ex-school board members hired ESI International for investigative services and when a community member questioned the expenditure, those board members remained mum.

Other News

• Susan Luzzaro wrote in the San Diego Reader that a non-profit bingo hall is proposed to replace Fun 4 All, which recently shut down.

• The Eastlake Action Group said that an Eastlake III soccer field had been shut down for over a year until a teenager called the Turko Files and embarrassed the HOA.

• Animal rights activists will be sad to hear that National City police are looking for whoever has been setting illegal steel leg hold traps in the city, which in recent weeks killed a coyote and two cats.

• I interviewed Supervisor Greg Cox regarding Parks and Recreation who outlined South Bay’s future Green Belt. Now you’ll certainly want to take my “Green Belt” tour of the South Bay, revving up your bicycle each weekend to ride at the Tijuana Valley Regional Park, theSweetwater Reservoir, the Otay Dam, the Otay Valley Regional Park or on the Bayshore Bikeway. It’s worth it!